Faissal Boulakjar
Member of the House of Representatives
In office
31 March 2021 – 5 December 2023
Member of the Breda municipal council
In office
27 March 2014[1] – 1 April 2021[2]
Succeeded byBart Lauwen
Personal details
Born
F. Boulakjar

(1979-04-28) 28 April 1979
Tifarouine, Morocco
Political partyDemocrats 66
Children3
Alma materSpectrum College

Faissal Boulakjar (born 28 April 1979) is a Moroccan-born Dutch politician, who has been serving as a member of the House of Representatives since the 2021 Dutch general election. He is a member of the social liberal party Democrats 66 (D66) and previously held a seat in the Breda municipal council (2014–2021).

Early life, education, and career

Boualkjar was born in 1979 in the Moroccan village Tifarouine and has six older siblings – three brothers and three sisters.[3][4][5] His family emigrated to the Netherlands in 1983 after his father had moved there in 1966 to work in a factory of the snack brand Nibb-it. He grew up in the Breda neighborhood Heusdenhout.[4] Between 1993 and 1998, Boulakjar attended the secondary school Olof/Florijn College at mavo level before studying facility management at Spectrum College until 2004. He would later also earn an hbo degree.[3]

He was a security guard at the Breda retirement home Raffy in the years 2004–06 and subsequently worked as a youth worker for Surplus Welzijn.[3][6] He also helped organize free futsal training for disadvantaged children next to his job.[7] Boulakjar became a reintegration adviser in 2011 but left that position the following year to work as a personal injury adviser until 2018. Thereafter, he served as an independent trainer and adviser and as an adviser of the program Samen Ouder Worden (Getting older together), which promotes volunteering for elderly people.[3]

Politics

Boulakjar joined Democrats 66 in 2009 because of the rise of populism and was elected to the Breda municipal council in the 2014 municipal election.[4] His specializations were youth, education, sports, and sustainability, and he became his party's vice caucus leader one year later.[8] He was re-elected in the 2018 municipal election as D66's third candidate, remained vice caucus leader, and served as the party's spokesperson for construction, housing, climate, security, and the region.[9][10] In 2019, Boulakjar and councilors from the Labour Party wrote a policy paper, in which they called for solving problems in the vulnerable district Hoge Vucht.[11] He also served as manager of D66's campaign in the Breda region for three elections in 2018 and 2019.[12]

He ran for member of parliament in the 2021 general election, being placed sixteenth on D66's party list. Boulakjar was installed as House member on 31 March after he had been elected with 2,875 preference votes.[13] He vacated his seat in the Breda municipal council the following day.[2] Within his caucus, his specializations were housing, spatial planning, railways, and public transport. The latter two were later in his term replaced by mining and the reinforcement of houses in Groningen to survive earthquakes caused by gas extraction.[14] Boulakjar is a member of the parliamentary Committees for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy; for Infrastructure and Water Management; and for the Interior; and he is on the Benelux Interparliamentary Consultative Council.[3] A motion by Boulakjar and Fahid Minhas (VVD) was passed in 2023 compelling the cabinet to investigate prohibiting the splitting of agricultural land into smaller plots. Het Financieele Dagblad had reported that these lands were being bought to be divided into plots that could potentially be used for residential construction and sold to investors with a significant profit. However, the newspaper noted that construction of housing had been rare on those plots.[15] In August 2023, a judge determined that these investments should be within the purview of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets.[16]

Personal life

While a member of parliament, Boulakjar moved from Teteringen to Breda, which is located nearby.[3] He has a wife called Bouchra, and he has two sons and a daughter.[4][17][18]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Faissal Boulakjar
Year Body Party Pos. Votes Result Ref.
Party seats Individual
2021 House of Representatives Democrats 66 16 2,875 24 Won [19]
2023 House of Representatives Democrats 66 14 1,412 9 Lost [20]

References

  1. ↑ "Vergadering 27-03-2014" [Meeting 27-03-2014]. Gemeente Breda (in Dutch). Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Toelaten tot de raad van dhr R. van den Bosch ter vervanging van mw M. van Hemel" [Admission to the council of Mr R. van den Bosch as a replacement of Mrs M. van Hemel]. Gemeente Breda (in Dutch). 1 April 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Biografie, onderwijs en loopbaan van Faissal Boulakjar" [Biography, education, and career of Faissal Boulakjar]. Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Boulakjar, Faissal (26 January 2021). "Kandidaat-Kamerlid Faissal Boulakjar: 'Dit land heeft mijn vader, heeft ons alles gegeven'" [MP candidate Faissal Boulakjar: 'This country has given my father, has given us everything']. BN DeStem (Interview) (in Dutch). Interviewed by Palk Peeters. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  5. ↑ "07:40". Goedemorgen Nederland. Season 2023. Episode 169 (in Dutch). 11 May 2023. NPO 1. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  6. ↑ Huijser, Petra (29 January 2005). "Toezichthouder zorgt voor gevoel van veiligheid" [Security guard provides a sense of security]. BN/DeStem (in Dutch).
  7. ↑ "We zien cultuurverschil. Deze jongens zijn temperamentvoller en emotioneler" [We can see cultural differences. These boys have more temperament and emotions]. BN/DeStem (in Dutch). 11 April 2007. p. 26.
  8. ↑ Boulakjar, Faissal. "Raadslid in beeld" [Councilor profile]. NotuBiz (Interview) (in Dutch). Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  9. ↑ "Proces-verbaal van de verkiezingsuitslag van de gemeenteraad" [Record of the election result of the municipal council]. Gemeente Breda (in Dutch). 22 March 2018. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 April 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  10. ↑ "Raadsleden" [Councilors]. D66 Breda (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 17 January 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  11. ↑ Peeters, Palko (10 April 2019). "Debat wijk Hoge Vucht: 'Breda kent hoge mate van segregatie'" [Debate neighborhood Hoge Vucht: 'Breda has a high degree of segregation']. Brabants Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  12. ↑ "Kandidatenboek Tweede Kamerverkiezing 2021" [Candidate book House of Representatives 2021] (PDF). D66 (in Dutch). November 2020. p. 88. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 April 2023. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  13. ↑ "Uitslag Tweede Kamerverkiezing 17 maart 2021" [Results general election 17 March 2021] (PDF). Kiesraad (in Dutch). 26 March 2021. p. 224. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  14. ↑ "Faissal Boulakjar". D66 (in Dutch). Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  15. ↑ De Groot, Gaby; Van Rein, Erik (29 June 2023). "Tweede Kamer wil splitsing van landbouwgrond halt toeroepen" [House of Representatives wants to halt the splitting of agricultural lands]. Het Financieele Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  16. ↑ Koops, Ruben (18 August 2023). "Rechter legt bom onder werkwijze dubieuze grondhandelaren: 'Einde verdienmodel'" [Judge destroys methods dubious land traders: 'End of business case']. RTL Nieuws (in Dutch). Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  17. ↑ Hochstenbach, Gerlach (17 March 2021). "Een dag van leven tussen hoop en vrees voor drie West-Brabantse kandidaten" [A day of living between hope and fear for three candidates from the west of Brabant]. BN DeStem (in Dutch). Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  18. ↑ @FBoulakjar (2 June 2022). "Vorige week op Hemelvaartsdag is onze zoon Anis geboren. Dankbaar voor alle felicitaties, bloemen en gelukwensen 🤲🏼. De komende weken ben ik wat minder goed bereikbaar en zullen collega's debatten van me overnemen" [Our son Anis was born last week on Ascension Day. Grateful for all the congratulations, flowers, and best wishes 🤲🏼. I will be harder to reach the coming weeks, and colleagues will take over my debates.] (Tweet) (in Dutch) – via Twitter.
  19. ↑ "Proces-verbaal verkiezingsuitslag Tweede Kamer 2021" [Report of the election results House of Representatives 2021] (PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 29 March 2021. pp. 62–100, 188–189. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  20. ↑ "Proces-verbaal van de uitslag van de verkiezing van de Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal 2023 d.d. 4 december 2023" [Report of the results of the election of the House of Representatives on 4 December 2023] (PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 4 December 2023. pp. 19–20. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
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